Apparatus for mending knitted fabrics



Dec. 3, 1968 s. MARLEY APPARATUS FOR MENDING KNITTED FABRICS Filed March 28, 1967 FHG.3

IN VEN TOR. jm/vfo/Po WAFA 5/ United States Patent 3,413,822 APPARATUS FOR MENDING KNITTED FABRICS Stanford Marley, New York, N.Y. (3728 80th St., Jackson Heights, N.Y. 11372) Filed Mar. 28, 1967, Ser. No. 626,534 Claims. (Cl. 661) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In apparatus for mending pulled threads in knitted fabrics and including a rotary shaft, a work engaging member consisting of a circular blade mounted on the end of the shaft, said blade having spaced loop thread engaging elements on its periphery separated by arcuate edge portions of the blade adapted to engage against the work between loop thread engagements by the elements. The elements may be triangularly shaped projections on the periphery or indentations in the marginal edge portion of the blade whose corners form loop thread engaging elements.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for mending knitted fabrics, especially knitted hosiery to restore accidentally snagged and enlarged loops to proper, normal size; of the type described in my Patent No. 3,196,638, of July 27, 1965, and in the other patents enumerated therein; and especially to fabric loop-engaging members of such apparatus.

The fabric mending apparatus of the prior art has heretofore used loop-engaging and restoring members in the form of blades of two types; namely, a single blade having an oscillating, V-shaped, loop-engaging point at its end; and a rotary disc having a serrated edge formed of contiguous, radial, V-shaped loop-engaging teeth. With both of the above types of work-engaging members, great care, involving substantial skill and training and substantial dexterity and muscular strain, is involved in positioning and maintaining the blade or loop-engaging disc point, or teeth, in proper relation relative to the fabric, so that the point or teeth ends properly engage the enlarged loops to reposition them without damaging the fabric or snagging other threads of the fabric to create other enlarged loops. This accurate positioning of the work-engaging member is especially difiicult and requires special care and skill and dexterity because the work fabric, which is tensed or stretched over a hollow cup, tends to vibrate under contact by the oscillating blade point or rotating wheel teeth.

The present invention, therefore, is directed, in general, to the provision, for use in apparatus of the character described, of a loop-engaging blade which removes the foregoing difi'iculties to a large extent.

It is thus one object of the present invention to provide a loop-engaging member, of the character described, which is substantially self-positioning, to thereby make its use and operation physically easier, with less of a strain; more accurate; and more rapid, and performably by operators with lesser skill and training.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a loopengaging member, of the character described, which dampens the vibration of the fabric being mended under contact by it, to thereby further facilitate the use of the apparatus as well as to make it possible to provide more evenly restored loops and therefore more perfect and exact mending.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a work-engaging member, of the character described, which is of relatively simple construction and easy to connect to the driving mechanism of the apparatus and whose use does not require nor result in the slowing down of the mending operation.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the apparatus of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the embodiment thereof shown in the accompanying drawing, and from the description following. It is to be understood, however, that such embodiment is shown by way of illustration only, to make the principle and practice of the invention more readily comprehensible, and without any intent of limiting the invention to the specific details therein shown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of one embodiment of a mending apparatus of the present invention, having the loop-engaging member of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of one embodiment of the loop-engaging member of the present invention, shown as mounted on the apparatus;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational and partly sectional view of the manually held end of the apparatus of the invention, with the loop-engaging member and its supporting means shown in vertical section;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of a modified embodiment of the loop-engaging member of the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of a modified form of a loop-engaging member of the invention.

Referring now, in greater detail, to the apparatus illustrated in the drawings, the numeral 10 designates an electrically-operated driving unit of any conventional type that may be used for apparatus of the type to which the invention relates, which may be controlled by a pedaloperated switch, 12, such as a reversible switch described in my said patent. The driving unit 10 may include a rotary shaft, 14, to which is connected the flexible driving cable, 16, which is, in turn, connected to a shaft, 18, rotatably held \within a tubular casing, 20, preferably of a synthetic plastic material, which serves as a handle.

The loop-engaging member of the present invention, which may be mounted on the end of the shaft 18 for rotation therewith, and is generally designated as 22, comprises a thin, fiat, circular, disc-shaped blade, 24, which may be formed of stainless steel, or the like, which is provided on its periphery with a plurality of preferably evenly-spaced, loop-thread-engaging elements, such as the radially-projecting, tapered teeth, 26, which are preferably of approximately even-sided, triangular shape. The blade 24 may be formed with a central, preferably circular opening, 28.

The means for mounting the blade 24 on the shaft 18 may comprise a stem portion, 20, having an axially recessed end fitting over and securable on the end of the shaft 18, as by screw 31, and having a laterally offset flange, 22, at its other end formed with a fiat, outer surface, 34, normal to the axis of the stem 20 and provided with a shallow, outwardly-projecting circular stud, 36, at the center of face 34, of a length not exceeding the thickness of the blade 24, and of a diameter equal to the diameter of the opening 28. Blade 24 is mounted by its opening 28 on stud 36 and may be held in place by the screw, 38, having the enlarged head, 40, which screw is engaged in the axial, tapped opening, 44, formed in the outer end portion of the stem 20.

While the blade 24 may be made in different sizes and the number of loop-thread-engaging elements may be varied, it has been found preferable, in apparatus having motors running at the conventional speed commonly used in such apparatus, to have the blade 24 of about 1% inches in diameter and to have the loop-engaging elements sufiiciently far apart to permit the arcs of the blade p riphery between them contact the work, to steady it as well as to steady the operators hand between loop engagements. With blades of the size described, the preferred number of loop-engaging elements is between three and four as shown respectively in FIGS. 1 and 4 of the drawings, .although as many as six may be elfective, and as few as two, which may, however, slow down the IWOI'k. With blades of the size described, the loop-engaging teeth may be of an altitude of between to preferred results being attained with teeth of W In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 5, the loop-engaging elements, instead of being projections of the periphery of the blade 24, comprise evenlyspaced indentations, 46, having preferably outwardly diverging sides formed in the marginal edge portion of blade 24, whose outer corners, 48, comprise the loop-engaging elements.

The indentations 46 may be of varied width, depending on the intended speed of rotation of the blade 24; the greater the speed, the greater the space required between corners 48, to allow the snagged loop threads to rebound from contact with the arcuate blade portions, so as to be engaged by the corners 48.

This completes the description of the snagged loopthread-engaging member for knitted fabric mending apparatus of the present invention. It will be readily apparent that such member, by reason of its circular shape and of the spaced loop-thread-engaging elements on its periphery, separated by arcuate edge portions which may be brought into contact with the fabric during the mending operation, greatly facilitates such mending operation by relieving excessive strain on the operators hand and by assisting the operator in gauging the elevation of the blade relative to the work; .and that, in addition, the placement of the arcuate edge portions of the blade on the fabric, damps the vibration of the fabric to prevent the possible snagging of new loops by the blade. It will be apparent, also, that the loop-thread-engaging member of the invention may be economically produced .and may be readily andf easily installed on any apparatus formed with a rotary sha t.

It will be further apparent that numerous variations and modifications may be made in the loop-engaging members of the present invention in accordance with the principles of the invention hereinabove set forth, without the exercise of any inventive ingenuity. I desire, therefore, to be protected for any and all such variations and modifications that may be made within the spirit of the invention and scope of the claims hereto appended.

What I claim is:

1. In apparatus for mending pulled threads in knitted fabrics by altering selected loops thereof, including a motor, a shaft rotated by the motor, and a work-engaging member mounted on said shaft, said work-engaging member comprising a circular blade having loop-thread-engaging elements on its periphery, the improvement comprising: providing between two and six loop thread-engaging elements equally spaced about the periphery of the circular blade, each said element having side edges disposed at angles to one another and at substantially equal angles to a radius of the blade passing therebetween, said elements spaced from one another about the blade by circumferentially arcuate portions of a length adapted to contact the fabric between loop thread engagements by said elements at the speed of rotation of said motor, the configuration of the work-engaging member permitting damping of the vibrations of the fabric during use to prevent snarling and more accurate mending thereof.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said elements comprise between three and four projections on the periphery of said blade.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said projections are triangular in shape.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said projections are of an altitude of between and of an inch.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said elements comprise indentations formed in the periphery of said blade, said indentations having opposed inwardly convergent sides intersecting the circumference of said blade at an angle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,570,637 10/1951 Brown 66-1 2,713,783 7/1955 Zane et a1. 66--t FOREIGN PATENTS 190,622 7/ 1957 Austria. 1,052,947 9/1953 France.

' 2,127 1855 Great Britain. 937,277 9/ 1963 Great Britain.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner. 

